I don't know if anyone will know the answer to this or not, but I'll ask anyway....

When Abbey Road/EMI sent the mixed masters to Capitol (and all the other record companies that released Beatles stuff around the world, for that matter) would the songs not have been in a totally finished state, with things like count-ins removed from the start and fade outs all correctly in place, etc?

I would have thought so. But if that's the case, how come you get anomalies like the extra trumpet bit appearing on the Penny Lane US promo, or the extra intro on the US version of I'm Looking Through You, or the high hats on the intro of a German release of All My Loving, or the extended outro on one release of And I Love Her? How did these mixes make it out of Abbey Road's doors?

Were these just mistakes where the wrong version of a mix got sent overseas?

Or would it have been the case that EMI sent out its copies of All My Loving (for example) complete with high hat intro, but with instructions to remove the high hats at the start before pressing records?

Found this: "On January 1, 1956 Capitol and EMI entered into the first of a series of what they called Matrix Exchange Agreements ("MEA"), subsequently renewed and amended. Pursuant to the MEA EMI undertook to supply masters to Capitol and Capitol to EMI in consideration for a license fee equal to a percentage of the retail sales price in the country of manufacture.....Capitol exercised its option to acquire new Beatles masters from EMI under the MEA." (sixties-l.blogspot.com)

So it seems EMI were legally obliged to provide Capitol with ALL Beatle masters. I doubt that EMI were in a position to give instructions to Capitol, and that they (Capitol) could use any of the masters in any way they chose.This would also preclude what I would think is the highly unlikely scenario of incorrect mixes being put in the envelope.

From beatlescollecting.com seems to confirm that Capitol was sent all the masters, including all the different mixes, from which they were then free to choose. I suspect the longer ICI was made in the UK, not spliced together by the US:

"All of the songs on the mono version of the album are true mono mixes; however, four of the songs, "I'll Cry Instead," "And I Love Her," "Any Time At All" and "When I Get Home," have mixes different than those appearing on the mono Parlophone A Hard Day's Night LP. These unique U.S. mixes were prepared by George Martin. "I'll Cry Instead" is an edit of two takes. The mono version appearing on the Capitol album has an extra verse not present on the stereo mix or the U.K. mono mix. The mono album was mastered by Billy Smith on June 29, 1964."

"Ten of the twelve songs on [Rubber Soul] are from the British album of the same title. Except as noted below, Capitol used the same stereo mixes as those on the British album. Capitol used the November 11, 1965 mix of "The Word" rather than the later November 15 mix found on the British LP. Also of note is the false start guitar intro to "I'm Looking Through You" that is present only (at least until 2006) on the stereo Capitol album."

It does seem a bit haphazard. When Capitol quickly withdrew the "funny" Penny Lane I presume someone noticed they'd used the "wrong" mix. (in that the UK mix is regarded as "right." But this doesn't seem to have bothered them before. They seemed quite happy choosing one that suited them best.) Though I've not heard it, and maybe it is obviously "wrong."But maybe by Penny Lane they were more conscious of using the UK mixes, and were now regarding them as "correct."

From beatlescollecting.com seems to confirm that Capitol was sent all the masters, including all the different mixes, from which they were then free to choose. I suspect the longer ICI was made in the UK, not spliced together by the US:

"All of the songs on the mono version of the album are true mono mixes; however, four of the songs, "I'll Cry Instead," "And I Love Her," "Any Time At All" and "When I Get Home," have mixes different than those appearing on the mono Parlophone A Hard Day's Night LP. These unique U.S. mixes were prepared by George Martin. "I'll Cry Instead" is an edit of two takes. The mono version appearing on the Capitol album has an extra verse not present on the stereo mix or the U.K. mono mix. The mono album was mastered by Billy Smith on June 29, 1964."

"Ten of the twelve songs on [Rubber Soul] are from the British album of the same title. Except as noted below, Capitol used the same stereo mixes as those on the British album. Capitol used the November 11, 1965 mix of "The Word" rather than the later November 15 mix found on the British LP. Also of note is the false start guitar intro to "I'm Looking Through You" that is present only (at least until 2006) on the stereo Capitol album."

Thanks for posting that info from beatlescollecting.com, Kevin.I've been to that site a few times and never noticed the stuff about the Capitol albums.

It's all very intriguing - how/why different mixes ended up on US albums etc.I've always thought that the UK releases were "as the Beatles intended" but it looks like that only holds true for the actual album running orders - in the earlier years at least. They were obviously quite happy for George Martin to send alternate mixes of their songs to be used on records in the US. Although, I don't suppose the band themselves knew much about it.

I'm still not sure why it occurred though. Why, for example, would EMI use one mix of "The Word" in the UK and send a different one to Capitol in the States?Or indeed (to keep this vaguely on-topic) why they sent the longer version of I'll Cry Instead over the Pond.I wonder if it has something to do with that song being dropped from the AHDN film - maybe they extended I'll Cry Instead a bit to fit in with the length of the sequence that was eventually used with CBML???CBML is 2:09 - similar in length to the extended I'll Cry Instead.

I'm still not sure why it occurred though. Why, for example, would EMI use one mix of "The Word" in the UK and send a different one to Capitol in the States?Or indeed (to keep this vaguely on-topic) why they sent the longer version of I'll Cry Instead over the Pond.

I guess because the contract between EMI and Capitol was for each to have access to the others masters.EMI had to send all masters over and simply couldn't dictate which version Capitol used.

Yeah i dont think they are worst i think you didnt like something in that otherwise they are fantastic songs any song how good it may be we can hear it once or twice and then we feel like worst. I have heard that song many times but i didnt think it is worst.